Designed for Inclusion: Re-thinking Leadership that Transforms - Speaker and Session Information
Leading a neuro-diverse setting in the reformed educational landscape – how can school / MAT leaders ensure their school/ MAT is truly inclusive?
Re-thinking leadership of a MAT to prioritise SEND
Under the direction of the Deputy CEO, the Shaw Education Trust launched the SENDing Students Soaring strategy — a system-wide response built around four interlinked strands: Outstanding Leadership, Highly Effective Adaptive Teaching, Embedded Support, and Focused Specialist Interventions. Each strand was led by senior and trust-level leaders with clear accountability, ensuring every school—and every headteacher—took ownership of SEND as a whole-school priority.
In this keynote, Tanya Rowley: Director of Quality of Education, shares how she leads the SENDing Sudents Soaring strategy using the NUTSHELLS framework to drive data-informed strategy and the SEND Five-a-Day model, underpinned by the EEF’s implementation guidance, to strengthen classroom practice. She explores how collaboration between SENDCOs and Teaching & Learning Leads, aligned QA systems, and clear implementation planning have created consistency, raised expectations, and built confidence across schools.
By rethinking leadership, accountability, and professional learning, the trust has reframed SEND as a core measure of educational quality, ensuring every school, every leader, and every classroom is designed for inclusion.
Tanya Rowley
With over 20 years’ experience in secondary education and senior leadership roles, Tanya Rowley is the Director of Quality of Education for Shaw Education Trust, overseeing 32 schools across the primary, secondary and specialist sectors. Her remit includes leading the trust’s Teaching & Learning and School Improvement work, alongside strategic leadership of the Digital and AI Strategy and the SENDing Students Soaring programme.
Tanya works with trust leaders, headteachers, and senior leaders in all schools: including SENDCOs, Digital, Curriculum and T&L Leads, to strengthen the quality of education in every classroom. Her expertise lies in connecting leadership, data and professional collaboration to build coherent systems that secure consistently high standards for all learners.
She is a published author for the Chartered College of Teaching and a founding member of the National PedTech Partnership, regularly speaking at national conferences on inclusive education.
Re-thinking Leadership
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Malcolm Reeve
Malcolm has worked in the field of SEND for 30 years and in that time has worked in adult provision, mainstream schools, and special schools. He has worked in with children throughout the age range and with learning difficulties ranging from moderate to profound. Malcolm has been a Headteacher of three schools and one federation. He is a National Leader of Education, a Member of the National SEND Forum, and Patron of the Centre Algarve holiday centre for people with special needs.
Keynote and Q&A
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Dame Christine Lenehan
Christine began her career as a social worker in 1980 and joined the Council for Disabled Children in 2000. She has conducted impactful reviews for the DoH and DfE, leading to significant practice changes affecting children and young people. Recently, she led a review on safeguarding disabled children in residential settings, urging government collaboration to improve education, health, and care for disabled children. Christine was awarded an OBE in 2009, became an Honorary Fellow of the RCPCH in 2013, and received a Damehood in 2016 for her work with disabled children. In October 2024, she was appointed Strategic Advisor on SEND to support government reforms.